The present invention generally relates to mobile communication networks and systems.
Descriptions of mobile networks and systems can be found in the literature, such as in particular in Technical Specifications published by standardization bodies such as for example 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).
The support of Mobile terminated Short Message delivery towards a User Equipment UE (or a Mobile Station MS) in such systems is specified in particular in 3GPP TS 23.040 and 3GPP TS 23.272. There is specified the capability of the system to transfer the SM to a User Equipment UE (or Mobile Station MS), and to provide information about the delivery of the short message either by a delivery report or a failure report with a specific mechanism for later delivery.
Optimizations or enhancements are now introduced in such networks and systems, for the support of new types of communications having new service requirements, such as Machine Type Communications (MTC). An example of such new service requirements is that mechanisms should be provided to lower the power consumption of MTC Devices.
An example of mechanism to lower the power consumption of Devices (or User Equipments), called extended idle mode DRX is specified in particular in 3GPP TS 23.682 and 3GPP TS 23.401. A UE with extended idle mode DRX applies longer period of discontinuous reception, up to several minutes, between the times when it wakes up to listens to possible paging occurences.
There is a need to improve the support of mobile-terminated short message delivery towards UEs using a power saving mechanism whereby the UE is momentarily not reachable (examples of such power saving mechanism including, though not limited to, Extended idle mode DRX). In particular, there is a need to improve the support of mobile-terminated short message delivery towards UEs in extended idle mode DRX.
Embodiments of the present invention in particular address such needs.